Being the Bowens: September 2012

I am not a water person. I have no problem at all with boats, but the thought of submerging myself in deep water (especially deep, expansive, rough water) gives me the willies. So, Blake and I are probably the only people in history to visit Hawaii and not swim at the beach. That wasn't the plan, of course, but after scrutinizing a map and realizing just HOW MUCH WATER surrounded this tiny island, I was not too keen on experiencing it. Water, and tourists. Despite the fact that we were tourists ourselves, the sheer quantity of them was terrifying. Thankfully, we had discarded the suggestion that we stay in the resorty sections of the island and found ourselves a tiny little condo in a quaint mountain town. The wedding we traveled so far to attend was in a neighboring town, and we just loved the mountains of Maui! Blake is currently taking "geology of natural disasters" (sounds uplifting, right? Perfect for a future emergency manager!) and they had just studied volcanoes before we left. Blake was so excited to explore the large volcano Haleakala, and most of our touring was done on its slopes and summit. We also enjoyed a scenic drive through the tropics that took us around much of the island. We did all our own cooking (we brought a bunch of food from home since groceries are expensive in Hawaii) and missed our babies and slept all night after staying up late to watch Downton Abbey and put a lot of wear and tear on our rental Kia Soul and marveled at the flora and cowered at the prices and loved that everyone thought we were honeymooners. It was a really nice time. Here are some pictures:

An inaugural Hawaiian dinner of chili dogs

I LOVED the dress I got to wear to the wedding. And, I got so many nice comments on it! I'm never the girls who's wearing something particularly eye catching, so I felt proud of myself!

We rented a motorcycle for a day!

Streets are really poorly marked; no one could give specific directions on how to find the house where the day after BBQ was- we ended up on a crazy road in the middle of this vast lava field, scratching our heads and wondering if the BBQ was out there. It wasn't. But we saw cute little black goats scampering among the lava. We call them "lava goats."

A lovely old church by the bride's uncle's house, where the BBQ took place

On the way up to the summit of Haleakala. I mastered that name and uttered it as frequently as I could. I was proud. Hawaiian is not an intuitive language- the vowels are consistent, but there do not seem to be any logical rules of stress, which was the biggest hindrance to our success. We stumbled our way through Maui.

There were cows all over the countryside, and all over the road on the way to the 10,000ft summit.

Blake in his element, on top of Haleakala

It was very wet, and quite chilly

We did a long hike in Poli Poli State Park, which included a random redwood and eucalyptus forest. Who would have thought?

Eerie, misty forest

We visited a lavender farm on a whim and enjoyed its gorgeous grounds. We called this crazy shrubby thing the "Dr. Seuss" plant. We ate delicious lavender infused sweet potato chips and drank okay lavender coffee.

One of many waterfalls on the road to Hana, a small town in rural eastern Maui. You have to take this insane 1- 1.5 lane road to get there, full of blind hairpin curves. I'm glad Blake is such a competent driver!

So many shades of green!

The only beach we visited: an awesome, exotic-looking black sand beach in Hana.

I just love the contrast of black and green and turquoise.

All of a sudden, the scenery is not so green anymore.

And soon it looks like this!

We watched the sunset before catching our flight home.

In other news, Rory (mostly) and Bash need a whole lot of retraining after five days at the grandparents'. They did really well and had a marvelous time, but I suspect my darling daughter ruled the roost. She and her brother trade the role of "instigator" on and off: The other day, I heard Rory cooing quietly, "Here Bash, here Bashy. Oh Bash, here." Then I heard quite loudly, "Oh, no Bash! No! No, Bashy." I turned to observe Bash happily chewing on the box of tea that his trusted sister had provided him with. They're not allowed to play with the tea stored at their level, so Bash thought he was getting a real treat. I suppose that was the first of many such incidents I'll experience as these little siblings grow. Bash gets his revenge at night. The babies share a room, and lights out means lights out. Rory is usually pretty good about going right to sleep, but lately Sebastian has been rocking the bars of his crib and calling out to her. I've witnessed her being enticed out of her bed on several occasions to go hand toys to her brother, much to his delight.

We have exciting news on the Blake-front! He called our county's emergency manager to find out if there was anyway he could do some sort of internship to get much-needed experience in his field before he graduates. Not only was the EM interested in the prospect, he decided to design an internship program using Blake as his guinea pig! He wants to help Blake build his resume and make connections with potential references, which is awesome; Blake will help in all aspects of emergency management, from revising emergency plans to working on a new emergency phone systems...the EM even wants Blake to use some of his time there to get HAM radio certified (which Blake has been dying to do but hasn't had the time) and take a number of mini classes through FEMA that will look superb on his resume. It will be a lot of work (unpaid work), but will be invaluable experience, and it's work that Blake is passionate about. I am SO proud of him and excited for him!

Finally, we learned our last night on Maui that my sister's 20 gestational week old unborn baby girl has severe spinal bifida. This was an enormous shock for her and Matt, and was understandably very difficult news. Their doctors have been very proactive about exploring treatment options, even before she is born. I've read about the natal surgery and it is insanely cool medicine and can prevent a good deal of damage that would be done to the baby later in pregnancy. Matt and Lindsay are praying about and considering this possibility, should they qualify; it's not an easy decision. No matter what, we know that God is forming their baby perfectly, exactly how he wants her, and she will be adored by so many people. Please keep them in your prayers.

Labor Day weekend in Flagstaff means FAIR weekend. FAIR weekend, like high school dances and buying a home, is all about the anticipation. When the time comes for the actual event, it's a little anticlimactic. This fair was no exception. While it wasn't the most amazing time ever, it was pleasant: The weather was nice (overcast!), it wasn't too crowded (it helped that we got free VIP passes and didn't have to wait in the looooong line to get in), and the kids were mildly amused. Each year will be more fun for them; they're still just a tad too young. I ate my annual corn dog (also better in theory than reality), Rory made it very clear that she did not want a pony ride, both kiddos consumed funnel cake, and we moseyed through the exhibits and animals. Rory's favorite parts of the day were riding the train and sitting in the car that one of the local dealers had on display outside its booth. Bash became most animated when he faced a gigantic bunny rabbit.

About those free VIP passes...A friend of ours was doing a lot of volunteer work this year and mentioned that they were looking for judges for the canned goods. Although we are not remotely qualified as preserve-experts, we gamely volunteered. We ended up being a little over our heads; there were probably over fifty jams, jellies, pickles, fruits, jerkys, barbeque sauces, and other random entries to sample and rank. For an indecisive people pleaser like myself, it was stressful! I still get a pit in my stomach when I think about the second place jerky..couldn't they both have won? Some of the decisions were quite difficult, and went something like this:

Me: "Which one do you think is better?"
Blake and our fellow judge, Nina: blank stares
Nina: "Umm. I kind of like this one."
Blake (murmuring): "Yeah, it's good, right?"
Me: I guess so. The other one is kind of gross."
Nina: "I mean, that's what a jelly's supposed to look like, I think."
All of us: collective relief, moving on

We were supposed to write comments on each entry. Sometimes it was a stretch: Well preserved; nice job pickling; appropriately jelled; and so on.

In other news....
I'm not eating sugar and white flour anymore. If you know me, you know that's a huge deal. It's been over two weeks now and I'm going strong! I'm eating whole wheat flour and allowing myself honey and pure maple syrup as sweetners (expect syrup is too expensive so basically it's just honey). I also have a little agave. I also let myself eat dark chocolate, but I'm consuming a lot less of it than I anticipated! Fruit and fruit juice are fine too. I plan on maintaining this through the end of my next pregnancy, whenever that is, both for health and will power purposes. I've made lots of super healthy muffins and some dark chocolate peanut clusters for snacks and treats, and spend some time scouring pinterest for new ideas. I won't use fake sweetners and weird ingredients designed to make healthy things more palatable; my focus is on reducing the amount of empty carbs I eat drastically and wanting them less, not faking myself out.

The kids have been sick (ugh), and Blake's back in school. We canned a gazillion pints of pear butter last night (canning is so stressful!) and ate it on delicious homemade whole wheat bread. We are READY for fall!!!